It distracted them from continuously hinting about us providing them grandchildren...

The Pretend Husband and I joined forces this weekend to host the family holiday dinner. We cleaned, we moved tables around, we shopped for food, we cleaned some more, we set tables, we cooked... it was a beautiful thing (and fun and tiring, too). The one thing we hadn't counted on-- and which will be done better-- is the timing of the meal and the draw of the kitchen.

I was in charge of the mashed potatoes and had planned to have them made before anyone arrived, but the PH convinced me it would be better to time the cooking of the potatoes so I mashed them just before dinner and they stayed hot. We also thought the island in the kitchen would be the perfect place to lay out the appetizers. Which is how I ended up with an audience as I finished making the mashed potatoes-- an uncle even commented that it was like a cooking show as everyone stood around and watched me with the potatoes and the PH carve up the turkey and the ham.

And it wasn't so bad until I stirred the pan of corn very vigorously, sending some flying across the counter and onto the floor. The "audience" all started talking at once, ribbing me for my lack of culinary skill. And the PH started yelling at me because-- and I'm not even sure how he made this leap in logic-- he thought I had turned the stove up too high and the corn had started popping. Next year: potatoes made in advance and appetizers laid out in any room other than the kitchen.

Another amusing thing was the Pretend In-laws and Pretend Aunt and Uncles playing Wii after dinner for more than three hours. They went off into the other room to play that while the PH, his sister and I sat and talked without having to be interrupted by the "kids" and their video games. Normally, we would have cut them off before that but they were playing so nicely together and it gave us adults a chance to socialize without them bugging us every five minutes to ask about dessert.